Words on Pictures: NYPL Picture Collection Annual Reports to the Director, 1929-1953

 Words on Pictures: Romana and the New York Public Library’s Picture Collection. edited by Anthony T. Troncale. New York: Photo | Verso Publications, LLC, 2020.   ISBN 978-1-7346409-0-8 (hardcover)  Identifiers ISBN  978-1-7346409-1-5 (ebook)

An eye for history...

[Vaudeville Theater advertising the silent movie Tigris next to the Brill Building at 46 Broadway, Times Square.] c.1913. Yampolsky Collection  


 Many illustrations found throughout the forthcoming book Words on Pictures are drawn from Romana Javitz's personal collection (cited as the Yampolsky Collection) of prints, photographs and ephemera. Here is an early view of Broadway in Times Square. ca. 1913. Note the Brill Building at right. 

 ~~~~~


One of the most critical quotes from the 1933 Annual Report to the Director sums up the contributions it provided going into the tumultuous Great Depression. It is only a harbinger to come for future decades of service to its consumers of visual documentation for the next 60 years.

   The Collection has the individuality and emphasis of the public it serves. Through the recorded everyday picture needs, numberless ideas, technics, attitudes, economic influence, stage conventions interweave to an extent that shows the live, contemporary character of the collection and its influence in the community. Rugs, stage-sets, murals, metalwork, and sculpture in the Radio City project were designed with the aid of the Library’s picture files (both the bad and the better depending on that help), Exhibitions lent by the Collection enlivened lectures, store windows, theater lobbies, settlement houses, schools and homes. Because of the attractive style of mounting developed in the last two years, the public began to borrow prints for home decoration.

Annual Report of the Picture Collection, 1933. 

Excerpted from: Words on Pictures.  (Bulletin of the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. New York.  Volume 37, pp. 400-402.)

In Chapter Six the Annual Reports from 1940-1953 clearly reveal the extent to which the Picture Collection contributed to the war effort, both at home and on the front lines. During the postwar boom of the early 1950’s these reports show how Javitz was again confronted with renewed demands on the picture stock coming from radio, cinema, television, publishers, and advertisers.

Annual Report of the Picture Collection, 1944:

 Exhibitions were prepared for use in camp training courses, such as the Northwest Passage exhibition for Fort Monmouth, and for use in giving young officers training at Yale University familiarity with foreign places of assignment. An exhibition “Words at War”, using pictures, poetry and booklist was prepared in twelve units, and has been on continuous view through circuits since August. The fan mail it provoked gave full evidence that the library was active in communicating ideas directly to the people. A composition of a cantata for soldiers was inspired by the idea of this exhibition. A news dealer wrote it gave her personal comfort and new faith. A painter asked permission to express the idea in terms of an easel painting. A precision instrument factory owner asked to borrow the display as a morale builder for the workers there.

 Excerpted from: Words on Pictures. (Bulletin of the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. New York.  Volume 48, pp. 329-331. Annual Report of the Picture Collection, 1944.)

Annual Report of the Picture Collection, July 1948 thru June 30, 1949:

  By July 1948, 1059 firms and organizations had been issued cards on which office staff borrows pictures for commercial, publishing and institutional uses. Registration of picture borrowers rose 30% in the first six months of 1948 with a 100% increase in the number of firms registered. While this is a large increase, the number of persons who did not wish to borrow pictures but preferred to stay and sketch from the pictures increased enormously. 

Annual Report of the Picture Collection, January 1947 thru June 30, 1948. 

Excerpted from: Words on Pictures.  (Picture Collection Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library Archives. Box 7, folder 4-11, Annual Reports, 1928-1999.)

~~~~~

  Each year, the pictorial document takes deeper root as a new part of the Library’s traditional services. Nowhere is there a comparable body of information about pictures as the Picture Collection files and indexes represent. Last year, 1214 firms and organizations made use of this picture service, borrowed pictures, inquired about sources of pictures, and how to organize a picture file. Within a few minutes an atomic energy laboratory was guided to locate pictures of the heart of the guinea pig; an agricultural school was helped to identify seedlings; and a publisher found pictures of Roman underwear. A radio network, with only seconds to spare, found advertisements showing women enjoying the aroma of pipe-smoking. These pictures taken to a hesitant sponsor sold the idea of broadcasting cigarette advertising in the daytime. The reputation of this staff as experts in the field of picture documents was well attested to by the number of illustrated publications which acknowledged their help.

 

Excerpted from: Words on Pictures.  Transcribed from: Picture Collection Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library Archives. Box 7, folder 4-11, Annual Reports, 1928-1999. Annual Report of the Picture Collection, July 1948 thru June 30, 1949.

~

 Words on Pictures: Romana and the New York Public Library’s Picture Collection. edited by Anthony T. Troncale. New York: Photo | Verso Publications, LLC, 2020.   ISBN 978-1-7346409-0-8 (hardcover)  Identifiers ISBN  978-1-7346409-1-5 (ebook)

 

#photography, #visual arts, #photographers, #visualresources, #librarians, #documentation, art libraries, art history, theater, #NewYorkCity, #FarmSecurityAdministration, #LibraryofCongress, #visualliteracy, Sol Libsohn, #illustration, #advertising, #Troncale, publishing, children's, art, photo, #WPA, #FederalArtProject, #circulation, #NewYorkPublicLibrary


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